free. free. free. free volunteer video for your media project a free video god r.t. dot com. president putin signs a bill which includes a ban on americans adopting russian children that has split russian public opinion by the authorities say it's aimed at the flawed a doctrine says too many people have. post massacre shopping spree uars gun stores are flooded by customers two weeks after a tragic school shooting in connecticut as barack obama's of threats to ban firearms backfires cuts. the coffee just under the coffee write. bad food turn nasty weather look at why many britons including more millionaires than ever want to leave the u.k. in the near future.

international news live from moscow this is our she with me thanks for joining us president putin a signed off a bill and a u.s. citizens accused of abusing the human rights the russians it includes a ban on americans adopting russian children the worst came about after washington introduced travel and financial sanctions against a russian officials it alleges are involved in rights violations. as a story. earlier the president said he saw no reasons why the bill shouldn't be passed and signed it on the next day after the final draft got into his office and now starting from the first of january american citizens suspected off while ations of the rights of the russian citizens will be banned from entering russia the bill

also introduces financial sanctions and restrictions on n.g.o.s and non commercial organizations with foreign sponsors and also the article which has been talked about the ban for all americans to adopt russian children for the past few weeks russian society and even the political elite have been split over the issue and there have been many cases of abuse of russian children and sometimes even deaths after they're brought to the united states and russian president has been saying that this bill is not aimed against people or children but it's aimed against the american system due to a lack of a proper legal reaction from american authorities to these cases including the a lack of heavy jail sentences and other problem is that russian officials are often not even able to monitor what happens to russian children after they're brought to the u.s. one of the reasons behind so much debate around the ban is also that many people are concerned with the state of orphanages in russia and along with signing this

bill the president also releasing degree aimed at improving the lives of orphans in the country lawmakers from the beginning have been saying that this is a response to the magnitsky act bans past recently by american lawmakers city game was a russian war of words for foreign investment funds he was suspected of money laundering but died in prison before a court could make a decision on his case is seen by many in the west especially united states as a victim of various human rights violations and the magnitsky act basically gives the green light for sanctioning a russian official suspected in the us of being connected with human rights violations in moscow by many officials it's seen as another anti a russian law because it's really not clear on what grounds this black list of names is that is being put together and also we know that some of the names are going to be classified all together. and as the investigation continues into the

death of sergei magnitsky in prison and most court has acquitted a jail doctor of negligence leading to loss of life russia's presidential council and human rights concluded magnitsky had been severely beaten and denied medical treatment while he was held in prison but the judge said she found no evidence that the doctor's actions caused the lowest death of meatspace family promise to appeal the ruling. critics of the new adoption ban say it harms russian orphans chances of a better heater but a former director of the american adoption congress told us that truncate how russian children are being treated in the u.s. is all but impossible a lot of the cases have gotten very very light sentences for the caretakers whether forster or adoptive of russian children here in the united states but we certainly have no idea how many children are enduring abuses surviving abuses of all

kinds the children that died at the hands of their adoptive parents were tortured in some horrendous ways they were sexually abused they were burnt they were starved they were caged ever any conceivable kind of torture one human being could inflict on another was done to these children so these were the parents that were caught and prosecuted nineteen how many more there is there's absolutely no way of knowing the united states has no system of follow up on adoptions once an adoption is finalized the child is considered as if born to that family gun sales have skyrocketed in the u.s. that's not a bronc obama dubonnet some firearms in the wake of this sunday hook school massacre as if he's going to take on explains that has backfired and. about two weeks ago actually on this particular wall here. they are is four rows down four

rows across. with everything going on in politics right now with the possible ban and everything everyone is flooding in. purchasing right away gun stores all across the u.s. are reporting record sales just two weeks after the tragic shooting at the elementary school in newtown americans are scrambling to buy the same type of weapon that adam lanza used in the connecticut shooting plus high capacity magazines and a lot of them panic buying trigger it out of fear that the white house is out to ban the weapons but this time the words need to lead to action no a ar fifteen for this customer all sold out at the store while prices on line have gone through the roof we're going for a thousand and fifteen hundred eight hundred dollars to twenty five hundred three thousand dollars even in some cases it's just the most amazing gun buying spree

i've ever seen so many gun retailers now quite cynically refer to thieve ministrations ben talk as the obama gun stimulants that's how good it's been for their business so how do you go from a president with a tough gun control agenda to someone gun dealers call the greatest gun salesman in america manufacturers of semi-automatic rifles were poured that their market has grown thirty percent over the last four years states like north carolina iowa you have seen a one hundred percent increase in gun sales over the same period in the wake of the tragedy in newtown one of the country's biggest ammunition suppliers said they sold more than three years worth of magazines in just three days. although president obama himself has so far failed to act on his pledge to ban assault weapons his words have certainly provoked action just not the type you may have wanted or someone they say is against were. doing a great job for us. maybe there should be

a third term in order to sell even more weapons many dealers hi bob gone apocalypse scenario so the band there were no way. to start. actually started. any drastic changes happening anytime soon. so let us know what you think by logging on to altie dot com and giving us your opinion in the comments section. here and there was no.

iran is holding a fresh round of naval drills in the strait of hormuz one of the world's busiest oil and gas shipping routes the six day war games come as the west systematically builds up pressure on iran over its nuclear program and they speculations of a military confrontation professor sayed mohammad marandi from the university of tehran has explained why the rains don't think and that talk is possible any time soon. in the sense that western countries are brutal and civilized enough to carry out an attack i think that that's clear to the iranians the fact that western countries are imposing sanctions and embargo on it on iran they're trying to

prevent iran from even importing and exporting medicine and food stuffs by blocking the central bank and there are shortages of some medicines right now in iran and people have died so the fact that the western countries are willing to kill ordinary people and to make people suffer i think makes it clear that the idea of carrying out an attack on iran is something that they would time template if they could but i think on the other hand the iranians believe. are much weaker today than they ever were before the defeat in iraq and afghanistan the setbacks in. that israel had in lebanon and gaza make as well as the economic crisis in europe and north america make a tie the unlikely but the iranians have prepared themselves and i think that itself has been it took deterrence to war so the i think in general the iranians feel that a military assault on iran aggression would be highly unlikely. and still ahead

here this hour washington's financial stability is close to the edge that the united states moves closer to the fiscal cliff but congress and the president still struggling to find common ground. and see where it dive deep into conflict with take a look at the key developments in the civil war a little lost in our series that we call a sad face our. growing number well see britain plan to wave goodbye to the u.k. over the next two years and move their lives and money elsewhere well the next phase for the country's millionaires are considering whether grazing according to a recent survey by lloyds t.s.b. international bank or his point was are explaining now what exactly is making the rich part of the luxury market. blame the dismal weather that's reportedly the overwhelming reason for why one in five british million as a considering upping sticks and leaving the country now those reasons

a followed closely by the high rate of crime in the u.k. and anti social behavior and then another reason why they might want to leave is the high cost of living here in the u.k. and only in fourth place from my why they might might want to leave is the high rate of personal taxation now where are they growing well top of the list of destinations is france it's nearby and it's warmer weather and same goes for spain which is the other place where they're all thinking of flocking to followed by the usa now we didn't manage to track down any millionaires but we hit the streets of london to talk to the ordinary londoners to ask whether they were considering upping sticks and leaving as well and it looks like most of them agree with the millionaires so let's take a listen to what they told us you consider leaving the u.k. . it's one reason that they climb up the second the dark. ages. would you consider leaving the u.k.

and leaving somewhere else i'm going to do really what is the reason my wife. my children but also the expense here looks like the middle class professionals are the ones who are actually packing their bags and leaving a recent report by the home office said that more and more middle class we professionals are actually packing their bags and opting to continue that career is elsewhere and for them the main reason is the high rate of personal taxation so if the millionaires are the ones that don't like the rain then is the middle class professionals the senior managers the academics the scientists that are actually continuing their careers abroad and a lot of business leaders are saying that if the high rate of personal taxation isn't cut it's going to lead to a brain drain for the u.k. in the future so something that's very worrying for politicians to consider here. we're back with more news after a short break. if

you're from my generation or younger and you were born into the one percent that i have a lot of college debt i sure do you know the deal used to be that you paid a significant amount for education but in turn that gave you a much higher salary later but now the system works in reverse many young americans studied very hard to not make any money at all around nine percent of americans with student loans have defaulted and at least nine but maybe up to eighteen percent are ninety days late with their payments given the situation the people at u.c. berkeley were nice enough to give away a million dollars in scholarships for everyone everyone that's an illegal immigrant yeah that's right if you're born in america then pay till you die but jump the border and enjoy the red carpet education treatment the people who will be getting

the scholarships are mostly the children of illegal immigrants who spent many of their formative years in america and yeah i can see the logic that could be hard for them to get an education when there are when they aren't citizens but they came into the country illegally it isn't taxpayers jobs to help them but wait berkeley is a private institution so i guess they can give out the money to whoever they want whenever they want however they want but berkeley management if you're watching this i would really appreciate if you would show some financial mercy to american citizens it isn't like they don't need the help but that's just my opinion. speak your language. programs and documentaries in arabic in school here on. reporting from the world talks about seventy r.p. interviews intriguing story for you.

arabic to find out me visit our big. welcome back here with r.t. the u.s. is sliding ever closer to what has become known as the fiscal cliff with barack obama hosting another last minute emergency meeting later today four weeks they were publicans and democrats have been trying to reach a deal on how to reduce the national deficit and if they don't billions of dollars in tax hikes and spending cuts automatically take effect on january first and activists and journalists don't double our size it's not the deadlock that bothers him but what has really already been agreed. the real problem in my eyes is not the

fact that they can't reach an agreement but rather that they have reached an agreement on many fundamental things the grievance they have reached is that neither of them are going to advocate put more money in the hands of working people they have no problem whatsoever removing a trillion dollars or two trillion dollars from the economy and delivering it to the bankers they did that inside of twenty days back in two thousand and eight and again in two thousand and nine was very little discussion. everyone agrees on both sides of the aisle that sums sort of the reduction in benefits from social security and medicare is inevitable quote unquote well you know the rest of us don't believe that it's inevitable or even that it's necessary and certainly not just that it's not desirable yet the agreement between the democrats and republicans on these fundamental issues is in my mind more important than their disagreement that the

posturing that they're doing for the media basically to try to blame each other for the you know going over the so-called cliff so that one and there's more news to concho what online including clamping down on a private christmas possible saudi arabia local police arrest now there's a senate race in a holiday that isn't aligned with the country's strict islamic holes. so it's hard to imagine these devastating twisters could be useful from much but one basic thanks i can turn them into green on a change so find out about. russia's syrian government statements that it's ready to talk to opponents speaking to john

its foreign minister sergei lavrov outlined the russian deal on how the complex should be resolved. we actively encourage the syrian leadership to make as concrete as possible is declared readiness for dialog with the opposition you're also asking when will the international community make up their minds that bashar assad should go with all due respect to the international community is the syrian people who should make that decision the international community should not be instigating one of the sides to continue bloodshed or set any preconditions they should instead encourage all the fighting sides to follow the geneva statements which set conditions for the syrians themselves getting all political ethnic and religious groups to agree on which kind of state they want to live in russia. another author also criticized the deep reluctance of syria's key opposition group bound by the west to make any concessions in the civil standoff but his trial is that russia is ready to hold

talks with the group when they push for that diplomatic solution to the conflict the syrian crisis has trond on for nearly two years with reports of fresh blood shed an almost deadly daily bases overseas correspondents call as close as they prove to the real stories of violence tearing the country apart and that's what we're focusing on today in our series of events that shaped twenty two. it became very apparent after a massive regional arab spring and in the wake of that the next contact of a pro-democracy movement and a revolution or civil war was not what was happening in syria when you see some politicians there and the media circus is just. cracking down on people you think

but what about the other side. of the politics and diplomacy there are facts that are simply too important to ignore. i remember i was a training session of the syrian football team and the coach was very angry with how his players were practice and he was shouting he was swearing from time to time and then i move my head like this just like this and i saw two helicopters fly and it's a very low altitude and firing we were at each of hotel restaurant and close to ours there was a group for rich syrians playing cards laugh and smoke and living life as usual and just before that me and my colleagues were live in the local t.v. station there was an enormous blast a few blocks away most likely terror attack most likely people have been killed and what struck you was the coexistence of those too. real which is the. most interesting interaction for me with assad happened before and after the interview obviously and that's often the case. i ask him if he's afraid.

said no. no i'm not afraid that's a moment when the you believe the person or not and the only reason you know if he's right or wrong is intuitional i think series becoming the next iraq it's a country that is totally disempowered from within. and murder don't surprise or shock anybody and like in the case of for iraq all this harm was done to syria with the substantial help of the outsiders onder the guise of democratic and townships. in each of the country's main opposition leaders are under investigation for allegedly inciting the supporters to overthrow president mohamed morsi a probe was announced shortly after the islamist drafted new constitution in training sharia law was officially approved in

a referendum writer and journalist new klunk has explained why he thinks morsi is growing out of the opposition now. i think he wants to sort of deflect attention from the economy because the underlying problem faced the biggest we're facing egypt is the economic crisis one in four years without jobs poverty is on the rise he just ended subsidies on fuel which means that the prices of gas and electricity are going to rocket and so this is a kind of a sort of smokescreen for him and he i think it's very keen to get the opposition tied up in these the legal challenges to sort of stop them from focusing on opposing him on issues where he's he's very weak and i think also he be worried that you know a sizable minority thirty six over thirty six percent of people voted against the constitution and the fact seems to be that that history is on the wane. and i think that obviously you know i think we can see more progress in the new year. as president morsi braces for more protests in the coming year leader hosni mubarak is

traveling with his. horrible ward was ordered into hospital by the state prosecutor after his condition took a turn for the worse for barak to lead egypt for three decades is serving life in prison for thing to protect the protesters killed in the arab spring last year. is of sunni muslims in the rant has joined protests against the shia led government the runways are the largest to show public anger in a week of demonstrations that flared up after their arrest of a sunni finance ministers bodyguards many sunni whose community dominated iraq until the fall of saddam hussein turned years ago accuse the shia authorities of refusing to share power. any teenager has committed suicide after being gang raped by three men local police have arrested the suspects named in the suicide note left by the victim two officers had previously been fired boiler should leave pressuring the woman to drop the case the incident happened i

made my outrage and protests over the rising number of violent crimes against women . there's a continuing rift between russia and china on the one hand and the other countries including the uars over how the world wide web should be governed proposals between moscow and beijing has recently been rejected as a major at a major un conference with critics accusing them of trying to impose online censorship and in the next hour r.t. asks russia's communications minister that moscow is suggesting what moscow suggesting and here's a quick state taste of that interview. there's nothing about censorship in those documents as well as there is nothing about censorship in the infill war or protecting children from child pornography and drugs and then suicide in russia there's nothing about censorship probably those global. leaders are making billions out of the internet economy they would prefer that internet is just some kind of

this. uncontrolled. development. information exchange. i'm sure they were lifted takes a closer look at a park his finances and worry about close to the edge again capital account coming up after bringing. the mighty volga that runs deep through the russian soul it has provided inspiration for songs and poems and is the country's main north south artery and decades ago she mn ingenuity connected it to the don't revert to the west the voted on canal is an engineering marvel within a day

a vessel can pass the canals thirteen locks ten million tons of shipping does so every year. another concrete giant is this finished fifty years ago it's the biggest hydroelectric plant in europe it powers the local city of volgograd and sends lots more electricity to moscow the hydroelectric plant behind me is a potent example of how much the volga can provide but harnessing the river like this isn't without its cost. fishermen have been watching fish stocks for years they see the slow damage the downing of the river has done especially to russia's prized sturgeon the source of caviar but in the president of the hydroelectric plant has done significant damage because it stocked fish swimming up river to the spawning grounds. within the year all these houses would have gone into the river depending on how many of the hydroelectric plants turbines are on the water level can change suddenly and dramatically too suddenly for the banks to absorb.

control of the river flow by the plant has made building the bogus flood plain more attractive serious floods are less likely but the water that is put into the drains is taken away from the fish that need it now but lost the voice of the voters ecology might stop being hurt. but that's the first time in fifty years the rules will contain a point on maintaining biodiversity in the river we still have a chance to bring the vulgar back to life. meaning that the money is treated with the respect it deserves. good afternoon love of the capital account i'm lauren mr here in washington d.c. these are your headlines for thursday december twentieth two thousand and twelve in

the u.s. as the fiscal cliff approaches reuters reports republicans are aiming to vote today in the house on a plan which obama probably says he would veto meanwhile it has warned the u.s. could lose its aaa credit rating if washington doesn't get a deal to treat what we call economy now this may all feel like deja vu and maybe it will all turn out fine maybe it won't though where you want to place your bets we'll talk to the daily reckoning eric cry and joe bowman about their choices plus a german study finds paying taxes has a positive impact on a person's subjective well being no word on what the findings would bring in the west but if you are counting on taxation to make you feel like your quality of life is on the up and up state side what talk about some other economic options and the opec of maple syrup has been robbed millions of dollars worth of the hot commodity has been stolen from canada's maple syrup cartel yes cartel i said maple syrup cartel and those are not my words.